Cabinet Members will answer questions from members on their portfolios.
Minutes:
Councillor J M Downes on behalf of Councillor F W Letch asked the Cabinet Member for Housing whether the breakdown of costs for the maintenance of the Town Square were available as he had not received the information previously requested.
The Cabinet Member stated that he had provided the information, but would look at providing it again.
Councillor J M Downes addressing the Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Regeneration stated that Crediton was being subjected to aggressive speculative planning applications because of the delay in the Local Plan which we may have to agree. When J27 was added to the plan the Council had been assured that it would not hold the Local Plan up, this was now not the case. It now looked like we hadn’t done enough ground work to make sure that the Plan was sound, now we were being targeted for not doing what we should have done. The Council should have already done the work to make sure that the Plan was sound and we would now have the Plan in place and have sufficient land supply. We were now dealing with applications on allocated sites using the current Local Plan, some of the allocations were at a higher density than the new Plan. Why had we failed to do the necessary work which had now delayed the plan?
The Chief Executive responded stating that this had been debated at the Scrutiny Committee, Members were aware that normally the Local Plan would not be barrister led and that the plan had been to take it though ourselves but there were some points that required clarification and therefore legal advice had been sought, the advice from the barrister was that additional work was required so that the authority could be certain that the plan was sound. There was little point in seeking legal advice and then ignoring it.
The Cabinet Member explained that it was a decision of the Council to go ahead with the J27 allocation, the Inspector had asked for additional information and whilst this was frustrating, especially with regard to the delay in the 5 year land supply. The timing of the inspection was still unknown and in the hands of the inspector. The consultants had been instructed to review the evidence; there may be a need for further evidence which may require a consultation period.
Further discussion took place regarding:
· the use and cost of consultants;
· what the proposed allocation at J27 was;
· the cost of keeping J27 in the Local Plan and whether to cut our losses and proceed without it;
· A previous change of heart with regard to the J27 allocation
· Economic benefits of keeping the allocation in the Local Plan
Councillor Way addressing the Cabinet Member for Finance asked that Member Briefings on the budget be arranged in advance and the dates notified and that one of the events take place in Crediton?
The Cabinet Member stated that he would look into the matter.
Councillor Dolley addressing the Cabinet Member for Housing asked for assurances that the development at Palmerston Park was progressing?
The Cabinet Member stated that the road was in and that the development was progressing.